The Republican Party of New Mexico kicked off a busy week of campaigning with a power struggle: Bernalillo County Republicans issued a call for state party Chair Amy Barela to resign from her post.
In addition to leading the state GOP, Barela holds a seat on the Otero County Commission. She filed to seek re-election this year, and a fellow Republican filed to challenge her in the June primary. The state party’s rules say if the chair “files as a candidate for public office and there is another Republican who has filed for the same office, the state officer shall immediately vacate the party office.”
In a call with Source NM, though, Barela said she wasn’t prepared to say whether she would step down.
Secretary of State knocks Republican off the ballot
The crowded Republican race for governor got a little thinner this week, too.
Election officials with the New Mexico Secretary of State disqualified first-term state Sen. Steve Lanier (R-Aztec) from the June 2 Republican gubernatorial primary because he didn’t file the necessary papers.
Lanier said he didn’t file a new declaration of candidacy with the New Mexico Secretary of State by the required Tuesday deadline because of a “paperwork mix-up.” He had previously told Source NM he turned in some 6,000 signatures in February — far more than the 2,351 required for Republicans who did not earn their party’s support at the March pre-primary convention.
“We are looking at legal options and may file a challenge, given that we filed with all the necessary signatures from the start,” Lanier said in a Thursday statement.
Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and public relations professional Doug Turner both made the ballot. As of early Friday afternoon, the Secretary of State’s portal still listed cannabis CEO and former state cabinet official Duke Rodriguez’s candidacy as “pending.” Rodriguez faces a challenge to his campaign’s legitimacy in court. He is also set to speak as a gubernatorial candidate at a March 25 Albuquerque Journal town hall series.
Iran war stimulus checks?
Oil and gas revenue plays an important lifeline in New Mexico’s economy. As gas prices continue to rise during the Trump administration’s assault on Iran, one gubernatorial candidate is proposing to give New Mexicans a cut of that profit.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, a Democrat facing former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in that party’s primary, said he would issue checks to New Mexicans as international conflict drives up oil and gas prices.
Under Bregman’s proposal, the state would send up to $500 to each person in New Mexico households that earn less than $200,000 per year. The state’s median household income is about $64,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“Because of this illegal war that our president has gotten us into, people are going to suffer at the gas pumps. Affordability is a real issue,” Bregman told Source NM Friday. “These natural resources here in New Mexico are the people’s natural resources and they should benefit from this.”
Ballot qualifications nearly complete
The New Mexico Secretary of State is still in the process of determining which candidates will make the June 2 primary ballot. As of Friday, some candidates on the office’s online portal remained listed as “pending.”
Election officials have until Tuesday to finish qualifying and disqualifying certain candidates.
Also on the horizon is April 7: the final day for candidates to withdraw from the primary race, according to the Secretary of State. The Source NM team will keep an eye on who makes the cut.
Sonya Smith’s campaign song
Sonya Smith, a veteran and former New Mexico cabinet secretary, told her supporters in a social media post that she would not be “advancing” in the race for New Mexico Secretary of State after she failed to secure enough votes from state Democratic Party delegates during a pre-primary convention.
She received 18% of votes from delegates, just shy of the 20% needed to get on the primary ballot, despite an impassioned speech at the convention. Her convention remarks featured a song written and recorded by one of her college sorority sisters, she later told Source NM.
“Put her on the ballot, put her on the ballot,” the song began, before launching into an extended pronunciation of the office she sought. “Secretary of Staaaaaaate.”
Although Smith has apparently exited the race, the election-themed single is still available to stream here.
Send your election season news, tips and songs to info@sourcenm.com
